Derby, Preakness winner is Ballena Vista Farm's new celebrity

Manuel Piedra, assistant manager at Ballena Vista Farm with 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, I'll Have Another, who is now a stallion at the farm.

Manuel Piedra, assistant manager at Ballena Vista Farm with 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, I'll Have Another, who is now a stallion at the farm. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Tod Leonard

As his newest neighbor was being led into one of the spacious stallion runs at Ballena Vista Farm on a recent afternoon, 8-year-old Texas Ryano poked his head above the fence and watched intently.

Ears pricked, the chestnut horse with a white blaze on his head expressed himself in loud snorts and stamped his front hooves into the dirt. He then took off in a gallop, running to the end of his pen and back.

The challenge was down. Texas Ryano was begging the new stud in town for a match race.

This is what thoroughbreds do when they retire. It’s in their blood. It’s also why they’re always kept in separate quarters, so they don’t maul each other in some macho showdown.

In this case, Texas Ryano should be careful what he wishes for. The son of Curlin won the Grade II Hollywood Turf Cup in 2016 at Del Mar, but his successes come up a bit shy when compared to the newcomer.

I’ll Have Another, who turned 10 this year, won the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes for Reddam Racing and trainer Doug O’Neill, and was poised to make his run for Triple Crown immortality.

Thirty hours before the Belmont Stakes, in a heartbreaker for his connections, he had to be scratched because of tendonitis.

Ballena Vista Farm is now the home of 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another, now a stallion.

(Howard Lipin)

The winner of the Eclipse Award for 3-year-old males after an undefeated season that included a victory in the Santa Anita Derby, I’ll Have Another was immediately retired. Only weeks later, Big Red Farm in Japan paid Reddam $10 million for the horse to stand at stud.

He was prolific in Japan for six breeding seasons until late last year, producing 118 winners, when the farm put out the word that I’ll Have Another was for sale.

Donald Cohn, the La Jolla businessman and philanthropist who is the founder of Ballena Vista Farm, seized the opportunity, paying an undisclosed amount, and after being quarantined at UC Davis, I’ll Have Another arrived in Ramona in December.

His presence is cause for celebration at Ballena Vista. Cohn said I’ll Have Another is the only Kentucky Derby winner to stand at stud in California, and thus will hopefully create a new generation of promising Cal-bred runners in an era when the state’s horse farms are dwindling.

It also brings fresh recognition to a well-respected thoroughbred facility — set in the hills between Ramona and Julian — that has produced and cared for horses for more than three decades.

“I’m very excited to have him. It does get my blood running,” said Cohn, 87. “He’s a marquee horse, and he’s got a great record. One of the major parts of our business is breeding, and to have a new horse, with new breeding opportunities, hopefully it will have an impact on racing here.”

I’ll Have Another is scheduled to begin breeding Friday, according to Ballena Vista manager Mike Jimenez. The stud fee for him is $6,000 per live foal (it was $31,000 when he started in Japan), and the hope is that he will cover at least 60 mares for this breeding season, which runs until June.

The math: $360,000 total if all were to go perfectly, which, of course, it never does.

The gambling on horses doesn’t just come at the betting windows.

“When you breed a mare, it’s almost a year (11 months) before she has the baby,” Jimenez said. “After that, it’s at least two years before you can get them to the track. Between that time period, anything can happen. You’re always investing money. It’s tough. You have to be very patient and love what you’re doing.”

So far, Jimenez said, I’ll Have Another is settling in nicely to his new digs. On a hill above the running pens at Ballena Vista is the Ritz of the farm — a row of immaculately kept barns and grounds for the stallions.

“They get the royal treatment,” Jimenez said.

I’ll Have Another shares the row with four others — Texas Ryano, Eddington, Conquest Farenheit and Bluegrass Cat.

The latter — owned by Ballena Vista and Wellspring Stables — was the 2018 leading sire in California by winners and repeat winners. Bluegrass Cat’s winners-to-runners ratio for the year was 53 percent, and his offspring have earned more than $44 million lifetime worldwide.

‘Cat was the farm’s biggest celebrity before I’ll Have Another arrived, because he finished second in the 2006 Kentucky Derby (to Barbaro), Belmont (to Jazil) and Travers (to Bernardini).

Ballena Vista Farm sits prominently off Old Julian Highway, but most people on their way to Julian on Highway 67 would miss it unless they take the side roads to the many wineries cropping up in the area.

The 200 acres of the property are dotted with oak trees, and seemingly every corner is finely manicured. At the top of the driveway are classic adobe buildings and the second home of Cohn and his wife, Karen,, who had to rebuild after their original house there burned down in the 2007 Witch Creek fire.

“The longest day of my life,” said Cohn, who along with his employees was forced to evacuate with nearly 300 horses left defenseless on the property.

Some of the fences melted in the heat, Cohn said, but the horses wouldn’t cross the smoldering remains, and it likely saved them, as the wind eventually blew the fire away from the farm. Not a single horse was lost.

“Luck of the draw,” Cohn said.

Cohn, who grew up around horses and racing in Northern California, bought the Ballena Vista land in 1982 from two different farming families whose pioneering forebearers arrived in the mid-1800s.

Cohn made his living in more modern fashion as the founder of Dataquick, the nation’s first online real estate data website. He’s been a prominent developer of real estate in San Diego.

“I always wanted to get back into (the thoroughbred business), so that’s why I bought the land,” Cohn said. “I’m not damn sure how I got into it, but once you’re in, you’re stuck. We love it.”

Cohn has an extensive and loyal crew that works for him.

There are currently about 200 horses on the farm, divided between stallions and mares, colts and fillies, 2-year-olds and yearlings. The 13 farm workers who live on the property, along with 13 maintenance people, provide for the horses through most of the phases of their life.

“The quality here is first-rate,” said Jeanne Davis, Ballena Vista’s sales and marketing director. “There’s definitely a difference in what is expected, what’s required, and what’s done for the horse. The animals always come first. If they need something, it’s done.”

The farm manager, Jimenez, has been connected to horses all of his life. His late father, Luis Jimenez, was a jockey who became an exercise rider for Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham at San Luis Rey Downs in Bonsall.

Mike Jimenez, 50, came to Ballena Vista 11 years ago, and last year was promoted to farm manager after the retirement of Manuel Ochoa.

“I love everything about it,” Jimenez said. “From watching the babies being born, to watching them to go auction, to going to the track and winning races … you’re part of the whole process.”

Jimenez does actually make it to the racetrack on occasion, though it doesn’t happen at this time of year because mares are giving birth at all hours of the day.

Summer is more open, and this past August at Del Mar, Jimenez went to cheer on two fillies owned by Ballena Vista and trained by Peter Miller. Tell Me More and Family Girl both ran in allowances races, and both made it to the winner’s circle.

“Got my picture taken,” Jimenez said with a big smile.

For those who want photos of I’ll Have Another, Jimenez is open to making appointments with visitors, though it’d be better to wait until after the breeding season.

He doesn’t mind showing off his new celebrity.

“I think we have the responsibility,” Jimenez said, “to the racing fans who keep us in business to give them the opportunity to come out here.”

They’re likely to be touched by what they see.

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